ADMINISTRATIVE BLINDNESS

Eleanor Clift is an arch-liberal who writes for the “Daily Beast / Newsweek.” She is also a regular contributor to the weekly political discussion on PBS, “McLaughlin Group.”

Eleanor has often made me think of the old story about Winston Churchill. When the very liberal Lady Astor came up to him one time, she said: “Mr Churchill, if I was your wife, I’d put poison in your coffee.” Churchill’s response was: “Lady Astor, if I was your husband, I’d drink it!” If I were married to Eleanor, I would have drunk it a long time ago, and I’m not a coffee drinker.

It’s been six years now since the Obama Administration came to power. During that time, I’ve not heard her utter one criticism of the president. The other regular “liberal” on the program, Mort Zuckerman, who voted for the president in 2008, is quite capable of pointing out the president’s faults, but not Eleanor, oh no.

Eleanor and the president are in tandem. While she is incapable of saying anything bad about the president, he seems equally incapable of saying anything bad about Islam. He can’t even bring himself to say anything negative about Islamic militants. He won’t even use the term, lest people associate Islam with extremism.

I’m not one of those people who think the president is a closet Muslim. He is certainly sympathetic to Islam, which is dangerous at this time in the history of the West. For what we need now is for a powerful personage on the world stage to speak plainly and bluntly to the Islamic world – to make it absolutely clear that extremism will not be tolerated and that Muslim leaders must unequivocally condemn acts of terror.

This applies to US, UK and French based Muslim leaders, imams in our mosques. If they will not condemn acts of terror, then they should be expelled, deported from our countries to the Islamic country they came from. Instead, many of these imams are actively recruiting young men and women to join ISIS.

A firm stand needs to be taken, but we are not going to see it from the US president or anybody in the Administration. Rather, we are being constantly told that Islam is a religion of peace, that extremists have taken hold of a peaceful religion, that Christians did some awful things to Muslims during the Crusades, etc., etc. The refusal to face up to reality is a hallmark of this Administration.

There has been no clear condemnation of the massacre of 148 students Thursday in Kenya by Muslim extremists, a death toll that is set to rise.

On the same day, we hear nothing but good things about the new deal with Muslim Iran, even as Iranians celebrated all night in the Iranian capital, Tehran, firmly believing that they have triumphed in their long struggle with the West. Their perception is that Allah has given them victory over the Great Satan. If they have won, how can we in the West claim victory? The Israeli prime minister has made it clear that the agreement will ensure Iran has nuclear weapons, not stop them. He has described the deal as a threat to Israel’s survival.

Of course, it’s not just the Administration that is at fault here. Most members of the press and the average citizen have their heads in the sand.

The trouble is, eventually they will have to come up for air, when they just might have to focus on reality.